Howard racist: ex-Malaysian MP

By Letters

2 July 2010 — 3:00am

JOHN Howard, do not fool yourself. Do you know why you were thrown out of the International Cricket Council's presidency bid (The Age, 1/7)? Too many Asians and Africans believe you are xenophobic and a racist. You were sympathetic to India in the area of uranium exports because you had to ''kow tow'' to George Bush. He had this passion to contain China's rising economic and political power in the world stage.

Danny Hee, former deputy speaker, Malaysian parliament, Box Hill

Put cricket first

AS SOMEONE who has done several years of voluntary work in cricket administration at a local club and umpired, I am elated that Howard will not be the next president of the ICC. His nomination was a slap in the face for hundreds of volunteers with years of experience. Why was an experienced administrator from New Zealand overlooked and a defeated prime minister, with no experience in cricket administration, chosen?

Partisan politics from the Afro-Asian countries aside, Howard's rejection sends a clear message to the Australian Cricket Board. It needs to put cricket and its administrators first when it comes to nominating candidates.

Sampath Kumar, Mornington

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The right decision

I KNOW nothing of cricket or the ICC but was heartened to learn that members had the tenacity not to elect John Howard as president. Whatever the reasons, the ICC has acted admirably. I had enough of Howard's distortions of truth and hypocrisy years ago.

Linda Domaschenz, Kiata

Oblique compliment

IT IS not that I would ever say anything favourable about John Howard. However, if he did not get the job as president of the ICC because Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe did not like him, then that is an accolade.

Mary Walker, Richmond

The worst applicant

I AM astonished by the outrage at Howard's rejection. Rather than the fear of him being a ''strong leader'', the small matter of 11 years of racism, cultural insensitivity, diplomatic blunders and national embarrassment may have had a bearing on the decision by ICC members.

George Bush might make a better selection. After all, he has proven some affinity with bowling, unlike Howard's celebrated 2004 bowling attempt in Pakistan. Please stop trying to justify his desperate bid for relevance and recognise the decision for what it is: rejection of the worst applicant.

Tim Rivett, Ferntree Gully

Future lies in Asia

ENOUGH of this spin about John Howard, the white knight who was going to wrest control of the summer game from the forces of evil. Whatever the existing convention, surely the Australian Cricket Board was not naive enough to think that his nomination would be rubber-stamped by the ICC. By his elimination, Howard's previously demonstrated ability to polarise opinion has been exposed internationally before his views and methods divided the world of cricket.

The future of cricket lies in Asia. It is time the ACB realised that Australian participation in the sport may be on others' terms, not its own. Nominations for ICC positions should reflect this.

John McCulloch, Cheltenham

Howard had secrets, too

SO HOWARD was ''doubly disappointed'' because the reasons for his rejection were shrouded in secrecy. As a member of ''the mob'' opposed to the Iraq war, I was doubly disappointed to be rejected by Howard. And his secret reasons were more deadly than cricket.

Roger Green, Ferntree Gully

Oh, for a leader of conviction

I FELT a pang of envy reading ''NZ rejects Afghan troop plea'' (The Age, 1/7). If Kiwis can have independent, intelligent leadership, why can't we? Most informed analysis of the Western military presence in Afghanistan indicates that it is galvanising and strengthening the Taliban, and deepening anti-Western sentiment across the Middle East.

If the United States and its allies poured a fraction of the war's cost into rebuilding infrastructure instead of killing innocent people, the Taliban's reason for existence would evaporate. Maybe we could send Julia Gillard and Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin to New Zealand to be brought up to speed on Afghanistan and how to treat indigenous people.

Don Stokes, Heidelberg

Yet more inequality

SO MS Gillard is against my right to marry the person I love (''No change on gay marriage'', The Age, 1/7). That truly is a shame.

I was all for Julia as prime minister and was so excited when she took over the role. I felt that Australia, just by having a female leader, had finally moved from the Dark Ages. How mistaken I was. It seems that even under a woman's care, Australia will not move forward for gay people any time soon. Julia, you have lost my vote.

Christina Goodman, Bairnsdale

A loss of spirit

I WISH to condemn Tony Abbott for suggesting that Aborigines should ''take any job they can get'', including picking up rubbish around the community (The Age, 1/7). Tony, can't you see the big picture? If you were isolated, without an income or industry, and if your culture and connection to your country were as severe as theirs, then we might listen to you. Maybe you would understand how this can lead to depression, alienation and lack of motivation.

If you were acquainted with the true conditions of most outback indigenous Australians' lives, you would realise that social exclusion and economic deprivation results in a loss of will and spirit. If you knew this, you would not dare be so so patriarchal and bourgeois.

Anne-Louise Brusey, Selby

Call it what it is

BEN Buckley, chief executive of Football Federation Australia, describes the expensive jewellery and free travel handed out by his organisation as ''gifts'' (Comment, 1/7). Out here in the real world, Ben, we refer to them as bribes.

John Gray, Seaford

Money talks

IF YOU have a lot of cash to pay lobbyists, you can easily twist the arms of influential people, be they World Cup administrators, politicians or talkback radio hosts. But what really rankles is that it is often

taxpayers' money and we only find out about it long after the event, if at all. Worse still is knowing that the decisions are not broadly canvassed and are not given without fear or favour. They are handed out with a nod and a wink.

Democracy means that we all have the right to an equal say. If decision makers will not listen unless we pay for lobbyists to persuade them, they are excluding the poor and underprivileged. That is not democracy. We should vote only for those who put everything on the table and are willing to listen even to the down-and-out.

Peter Evans, Hawthorn

Me too, me too

ISN'T it strange? The state government appears to have become ''Little Sir Echo''. Every time the opposition announces an election decision - for example, more paramedics for regional Victoria, the government follows with a similar announcement (The Age, 1/7). Mr Brumby must be running scared. And you cannot believe his promises. After all, Mildura was promised the return of its passenger train by 2004 and there is still not one.

Mary Chandler, Red Cliffs

Black gold

OH DEAR. Barack Obama and David Cameron have just agreed that BP must survive (World, 29/6). I thought that the one saving factor about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill was that it would make the world see the madness of oil, with its spills, wars, environmental devastation, unsustainability and emissions.

With the United States and Britain hell-bent on continuing to produce oil and protect the future of the company responsible for this catastrophe, we need to drop our demand for oil. Are we going to leave it to our ''leaders'' or do our bit to stop this madness by pursuing alternative energy sources?

Mark Rodriquez, Noosa, Qld

More empty words?

I AM not trying to look a gift horse in the mouth with regard to Tony Abbott's promised $1.5 billion increase for mental health (The Age, 1/7). However, as health minister, he looked the mental health sector in the eye and told us he was investing in it. At the same time, our core funding dwindled and Medicare for the wealthy (aka Better Access) went billions of dollars over budget.

The positive now is that Abbott has promised us new money. The negative is that he has cherry-picked the most attractive services and ignored the rest of the community and referral systems that are necessary to provide medium or long-term benefit for people with mental illness. Where is rehabilitation? Where is co-ordination between services? We have danced with this man before - and he loved abandoning us on the dance floor.

Tully Rosen, Dulwich Hill, NSW

A proven scheme

WHILE further mental health initiatives are called for, we should also build on what is working well. In a group psychology practice, we have gathered data on 350 clients seen through the Better Access (Medicare-funded) scheme. It demonstrates that the average client reported a reduction in anxiety and depressive symptoms from a moderate level before treatment to a normal, non-clinical level after an average nine sessions of psychological therapy. Clients we have treated for depression fared just as well, regardless of whether or not they were using prescribed medication.

This cost-effective scheme targets most of the one-in-five Australians suffering from mental disorders. However, some of those who support further services advocate curtailing this scheme.

Chris Mackey, psychologist, Geelong West

More fool me

WAS I the only idiot who joyously believed that Gillard would deliver an honest and accountable administration? Well, her jaunt to Brisbane on a VIP plane for a fund-raiser finished me off (The Age, 1/7). Not to mention the cruel removals of refugees to remote West Australian camps.

Jill O'Brien, Kew

A better service

I DO not know how Metro's performance figures are measured (''Trains fail to meet time targets for seventh month'', The Age, 1/7), but I find them unbelievable. Other regular commuters will have noticed that the service's reliability has improved since Metro took over.

Late trains may have increased during peak hours. However, planning to catch a specific train at this time is destined for failure. It is like driving during peak hours and aiming to arrive at every traffic light at a set time.I prefer trains that arrive five minutes late, as is the case with Metro, than those that are cancelled, as occurred under Connex.

Donovan Ferguson, Hawthorn

Window dressing

JOHN Brumby will require fast-food outlets to provide kilojoule counts of their meals (The Age, 30/6). This is mere window dressing for voters. McDonald's, KFC and others had already agreed to labels because they know it will have little effect on sales. Junk food causes similar disease to cigarettes - diabetes, heart disease and obesity, that maim, disable and kill people. Kilojoule labels will not solve these problems. We need policies to make fresh, nutritious food affordable and encourage everyone to eat well. That would make a real difference to public health.

Bob Phelps, executive director,

Gene Ethics, Carlton

Time for action

IT IS a relief that VicForests may soon be accountable for the illegal logging of old-growth forests (The Age, 30/6). I am concerned that it takes public scrutiny and court hearings for the government to take such allegations ''very seriously''. Why hasn't it taken such logging very seriously for the past three decades? Decades that have seen destruction of habitats, water catchments below 30 per cent capacity, forests wiped out and 400-year-old trees chipped up for less than $2 a tonne. Surely now the government will protect the remaining old-growth forests.

Clara Davies, East Brunswick

... And Another Thing

SOMEONE should have told Howard this was one election he wouldn’t win by mentioning boat people.

Patrick Edgeworth, Elwood

ICC presidency

COULD Howard's problems be related to a suspect bowling action?

John Ellis, Golden Point

HOWARD laments not being appointed because of politics. How many right-wing appointments were made to our courts and other bodies under his reign?

Cait Ellis, Parkville

SHAFTED by a faceless bureaucracy, racist overtones and a decision ''shrouded in secrecy''. I bet Dr Mohamed Haneef was ''furious'', just like Howard.

Angus McLeod, Cremorne

World Cup bid

IF YOU believe that our competitors will try to win on merit, you are living in la-la land.

Brian Durrant, Ringwood North

I AM a soccer tragic, although the only time I kicked a ball it went into touch. Can I have Frank Lowy's job?

Bill Pell, Emerald

I'D SUGGEST that the federal police investigate Australia's World Cup bid for bribery, but I fear the result would be 0-1.

Stephen Szalla, Donvale

Politics

THE only thing missing from the collectables in Gillard's office (1/7) is the urn containing Rudd's ashes.